


Quarantine Christmas

by Becci Barnes (BeccEEE)



Series: STB Bingo 2020 [7]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 2020, Christmas, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Fluff, Christmas at Home, Christmas market, Established Relationship, First Christmas, Fluff, Holiday Lights, Holidays, Hot Chocolate, Ice Skating, M/M, Quarantine, Snow, Surprises, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, christmas foods, lockdown - Freeform, roasted chestnuts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:14:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28162242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeccEEE/pseuds/Becci%20Barnes
Summary: It's the first Christmas Steve and Tony really get to spend together. Tony has a number of plans, but it's 2020 and one word foils all of these plans: lockdown. So he has to come up with an alternative to teach Steve the magic of Christmas.---"Lockdown!" he said angrily, pointing redundantly at the headline."Yeah. So what?" Steve asked."So what???" Tony looked at him, aghast. Then he slid the phone back into his pocket and threw his hands up in despair as he turned away from Steve to pace upset circles in the living room. "This is a disaster, Steve"
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: STB Bingo 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2039457
Comments: 6
Kudos: 36
Collections: STB Bingo: Round One





	Quarantine Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Fill number seven for the Steve-Tony-Bucky-Bingo on Tumblr: [STB Bingo](https://stb-bingo.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Prompt: Earth is closed today
> 
> Steve and Tony are staying at home, keeping their distance and wearing a mask in public.  
> Be like Steve and Tony. Stay safe.  
> Merry Christmas!

  
A door banged shut and Steve looked up from his book. He turned his head to peer over from the armchair he was sitting in towards the stairs leading down. He was pretty sure it had been the door to Tony's workshop in the basement that someone had forcefully slammed shut behind them. And indeed, only a few seconds later, he heard footsteps coming from downstairs. Tony's head appeared at the landing and Steve watched as he stomped furiously up the stone steps. He briefly looked around the living room, spotted Steve in his favourite armchair close to the window and came towards him. Without comment, he held his mobile phone to his face. Steve read what was displayed on the small screen. 

  
_Lockdown imminent. New York closes all shops._

  
He looked up into Tony's face, who was still staring at him in anger, as if it was his personal fault that they were in the midst of a global pandemic. Steve read the headline again because he felt he had missed something important, but again he couldn't see anything too unusual about it. There had been discussions for days regarding a possible lockdown during Christmas time after all. Evidently, they had now decided on it. Steve raised an eyebrow inquiringly and looked at Tony again.  
"Lockdown!" he said angrily, pointing redundantly at the headline.   
"Yeah. So what?" Steve asked.  
"So what???" Tony looked at him, aghast. Then he slid the phone back into his pocket and threw his hands up in despair as he turned away from Steve to pace upset circles in the living room. "This is a disaster, Steve"  
"Why? It will help curb the infection rates so we can all get back to our normal lives sooner" He put _normal_ in quotes with his fingers. As if their lives had ever been normal.  
"Yes, I do know that" Tony whined, lowered his hands and looked dejectedly at Steve. "But this is our first Christmas together..."  
"Not true," Steve objected.  
"Yeah, but last year doesn't count, I was in hospital half dead" Tony said "You weren't around the year before that" He gave Steve an accusing look. "So that doesn't count either. And the year before that... I don't know what happened back then. But that doesn't count either"  
"Okay, so assuming this was our first Christmas together, what would that change?" Steve asked.  
"I wanted to go to Christmas markets with you, drink tons of hot chocolate, marvel at the holiday lights in the park, go ice skating... the whole cheesy routine from top to bottom. And now? Lockdown. Earth is closed. Nothing, nada, niente. Everything shut down." He looked straight at Steve and under the facade of upset irony he saw that Tony was genuinely sad about it. Steve got up from his armchair and pulled him into a tight hug.   
"2020 sucks," Tony mumbled into Steve's shoulder.   
"I know," Steve replied. "But we have to deal with it now. It'll be better next year. And Christmas can still be nice without all that" Tony snorted as if to contradict, but said nothing. Finally he looked up, pressed a quick kiss to Steve's cheek and was halfway back to the basement when Steve asked perplexed, "What are you up to?"  
"Rescheduling Christmas" Tony answered without turning around and disappeared down the stairs again.   
Steve watched him go. In silence, he agreed with Tony. This wasn't really the Christmas he had imagined either. He would have loved to go to Christmas markets with Tony or to one of the famous drive through light festivals. But unfortunately, not even the two of them could do anything about this virus. And so they had no choice but to make the best of it.

For Tony, making the best of it apparently meant burying himself in his workshop even more during the following days than he had already done before. Steve had stopped questioning that a long time ago. But he knew that when he only got to see his boyfriend at the meals, things were getting critical. He tried to see the bright side, though, which was that Tony at least still ate and slept regularly without Steve having to remind him, which was by no means a given. But Tony had also made it clear to Steve that the workshop was off limits to him from now on. "It's almost Christmas?!" he had declared indignantly "Maybe I'm hiding super secret presents from you down there?" And that was why Steve now stood alone at the landing of the stairs, shouting down in annoyance "Tony, are you coming or not?" as he donned his thick blue woolly hat.   
"I've changed my mind" Tony's voice called back upstairs.   
"What a surprise," Steve muttered. In the last 10 minutes alone Tony had reconsidered his decision four times.   
"So, that’s your final call now?" he asked again, just to be on the safe side. If Tony didn't want to go, that was his own decision, but he didn't want to be held responsible if Tony was angry with him afterwards for picking out their Christmas tree alone.   
The answer didn't come immediately and Steve was already expecting Tony to have changed his mind again, but finally he heard a "Yeah, you go alone" from downstairs.  
"Whatever you say," he called back, picked up his gloves from the radiator, grabbed one of the fabric masks lying by the entrance and left the house.

The snow that had fallen overnight was high enough that Steve sank in it up to his ankles as he walked over to their car. To one of their cars. To the one car that Tony had declared best suited to transport an entire fir tree. Steve hadn't expected Tony to own anything other than flashy coloured but logistically impractical sports cars and he had seriously been wondering if he could squeeze the tree into the back seat of his SUV. But the pickup truck with its large open load floor was perfect for hauling cargo even though it was painted a vibrant red. Steve was pretty sure it was the same colour Tony had painted the early models of Iron Man.  
As Steve rolled down their long driveway, he checked the rear view mirror more often than was necessary. At any moment he expected Tony to come rushing out of the house with his shoes untied and his jacket half on, because he wanted to come along now after all. But when Steve reached the road, the front door was still closed and when he took the turn in the direction of the tree farm, Tony had ultimately missed his chance.

Choosing a tree turned out to be more difficult than he had thought. It was the first time he ever bought a Christmas tree, because as Tony had summed it up so well, his last Christmas festivities had been rather unusual. What should he pay attention to when buying something like this? Steve looked at the green firs and could not make up his mind. As the sun slowly set, he felt as if he had circled every tree on the farm three times without making a decision. Should he rather take the bellied one, which was a bit smaller? Or the tall one with the thick branches? Or was that one too tall for their living room? More than once he turned around, wanting to ask Tony for advice. Finally, he decided to go with his gut feeling and choose one that was average in height, average in width and average in beauty. It was perfectly adequate for him and if Tony should complain ... well, he could have just come along.

Steve paid 75 dollars for the tree and loaded it onto the back of the pickup himself. The salesman was quite astonished, but refrained from making any comments.   
On the way back, Steve switched the radio channel four times because he couldn't bear to listen to _Last Christmas_ again, until he eventually gave in the fifth time. And when he turned onto their driveway, he even hummed along with _All I want for Christmas is you_.   
He parked the car as close to the front door as he could and put his gloves back on before stepping out into the snow. He had just lowered the flap of the truck bed when he heard the front door open behind him. Light flooded out from inside their house. Steve turned around in surprise. "Did the basement get boring?" he asked as Tony walked through the snow towards him.  
"No," he replied "But the project is finished."  
"Does that mean I am allowed to be downstairs again?" Steve asked as he climbed up onto the truck bed.  
"No," Tony just said and received the tree, which Steve pushed towards him. Together they carried it to the porch where they leaned it against the house wall. Steve was about to pull out his pocket knife to cut the mesh that held the branches in place when Tony reached out for his elbow and hooked his arm with Steve’s. "That can wait," he said. "I hope you're not completely frozen yet, Capsicle, because I'm planning on kidnapping you for a while"  
"You're lucky, I put on a second pair of socks," Steve replied.  
"And you're the only one who can make even that sound sexy." Tony grinned and stretched out to kiss Steve. Steve returned the kiss, not without warming the tip of his cold nose on Tony's cheek afterwards, which made the latter wince briefly. Then Tony looked up at him again. "Will you accompany me on a little walk, Mr Rogers?"  
"Captain Rogers," Steve corrected him with a smirk.  
"You're not on duty."  
"I'm always on duty."   
Tony looked at him sternly. "No, today you are not on duty" And he turned resolutely and walked away. Steve had no choice but to follow him as Tony's arm was still wrapped around his elbow.

In silence, Tony led them back down the driveway that Steve had just driven up. Right before they reached the boundary of their extensive property, Tony stopped and turned back to the house along with Steve. "Jarvis, activate the starry sky protocol."  
"The what?" Steve asked, but he could have spared himself the question as lights went on in front of him. And it weren't just a few. Tony seemed to have festooned every single tree in their garden with chains of golden lights, turning the treetops into a sea of tiny glowing dots. Indeed, it looked as if a lush starry sky stretched above their heads. The driveway was also fringed with lights, framing the whole way up to the house. Steve couldn't make out any details from here, but he saw that the house hadn't been spared from Tony's decorating attack either. He wondered how he hadn't noticed it until just now.  
"We used to drive around town a lot in December just to see all the christmas lights" Tony said "A little park nearby always had a big holiday lights festival every year... Well, it wasn't very difficult to track down where they got their lights from. And as it turned out, the supplier has quite a few other glowing gimmicks in their range," Tony explained, smiling at him as Steve still admired the twinkling in the trees above them.  
"Tony, that's beautiful," he finally said, looking back down into his boyfriend's eyes.  
"I heard the big tree at Rockefeller Center has 50,000 lights this year," Tony said casually. "No need to mention that I beat that number, of course, right?"  
"Where did you hide them all?" Steve asked with a laugh.  
"Oh, you know, here and there," Tony smirked, "May I show you around?"  
"Please do"

Tony took Steve's arm again and they strolled slowly back up the driveway. Only now did Steve notice that not only the treetops above them were studded with lights, but that the hedge fencing their property also sparkled in gold. But as they slowly approached the house again and the whole sight revealed itself to them, Steve had to stop. The entire roof was framed by twinkling fairy lights and the luminous strings hanging down from the roofing of the porch looked as if golden icicles had formed there. The support beams were wrapped in artificial pine needles, from which more lights twinkled towards Steve, and all the windows had also apparently been given a new illuminated frame. It looked as if Tony had bathed their entire house in shimmering gold.  
"I thought I'd keep it a little more classic," Tony said and Steve heard the pride resonate in his voice. "I know you're not a big fan of all that garish LED stuff, so I stuck with good old warm white."   
"That looks stunning," Steve said sincerely, letting his eyes wander across the porch and up to the gable of the roof, which was adorned with a large illuminated star. He pointed to it. "But you couldn't resist that one, could you?" he asked with a grin.  
"Steve, you don't own the star. It's Christmas. Even toilet paper is sold with stars on it now," Tony said and Steve laughed. "But yes, I admit putting that one up was particularly fun"  
Steve shook his head still grinning and then put his arm around Tony to hug him to his side. Tony rested his head on Steve's shoulder as they just stood there admiring the golden lights that had turned their house into a Christmas movie scenery.   
"I'm glad I'm not the one paying the electricity bill," Steve said.  
"Eh, peanuts," Tony countered nonchalantly, wrapping his arms around Steve's middle. They stood in silence and Steve's eyes wandered for what must have been the hundredth time up to the treetops and over the roof edges of their house, a sight of which he couldn't get enough of.

"You know what's lacking right now?" he eventually asked.  
"What?" Tony murmured against his shoulder.  
"Hot chocolate."  
Tony smirked slyly up at him, took his hand and led him the last few feet up the driveway and onto the porch. "I may have something along those lines prepared inside," he said as they stood at the front door. "Your choice. I can either bring mugs out for us and we can look at the lights a little longer, or you can come in with me. But you may not feel the need to go out again afterwards."  
"I'll take that chance," Steve said. "My feet are getting cold anyway"  
"And that's despite wearing two pairs of socks," Tony teased as he opened the front door.

When Steve stepped through the door, the first thing he noticed was the smell. It smelled like hot chocolate. But it also smelled like something else. "Have you been baking?" he asked in disbelief as he took off his shoes, which were wet from the snow. "Among other things...", Tony said vaguely, hanging his jacket on the hook on the wall. He waited impatiently in the hallway while Steve carefully placed his beanie and gloves on the radiator to get dry. But as soon as his hands were free, Tony grabbed them and pulled him along into the living room.  
"Welcome to the very first Stark Christmas Market," he said, made a sweeping gesture into the room and revealed the living room table. It was loaded with several small bowls containing a variety of things. Steve recognised marshmallows, fudge and what looked like caramelised almonds. But some of the bowls also contained things he had never seen before.   
"Hot chocolate, marshmallows, fudge, roasted chestnuts, roasted almonds, warm pretzels, apple cider with caramel ..." Tony listed. " In short: all the things I wanted to show you at a real Christmas market. But instead you'll have to make do with this and live with the fact that I'll steal every other bit from you while I spread out on your lap and prevent you from seeing a single second of whatever random Christmas film Jarvis has chosen."   
Steve smiled at him. "I don't think I ever want to go to a real Christmas market if this is the alternative," he said, settling down on the sofa.  
"You will, next year I'll drag you there" Tony said as he filled two cups with hot chocolate from the pot on the windowsill. "Even if it's just to prove to you that I make the better hot chocolate" He handed Steve a cup and Steve put his cold hands around the pleasantly warm ceramic.   
"You do realise I haven't just been alive since yesterday don't you?" Steve asked as Tony made himself comfortable next to him on the couch with the contents of his cup swaying dangerously. "I've had hot chocolate before".  
"Yeah, but it's different at Christmas," Tony said with conviction, and took a sip. As he lowered the cup, some of the milk foam stuck to his upper lip. Steve smirked and leant over to kiss the cocoa off his lip. The kiss tasted like chocolate.   
"You' re right," Steve said when they parted again and the milk moustache had disappeared. "That's actually different" Tony's cheeks had turned red and he took another sip from his cup. Steve too was now sipping his drink and letting the hot chocolate run down his throat. After they had been standing outside in the cold a moment ago, it now thoroughly warmed him from the inside. And it actually tasted very good. Although not quite as good as the chocolate kiss.

Tony casually threw his legs over Steve's thighs as he put down his cup and snatched one of the bowls from the coffee table. Steve watched as he popped one of the caramelised almonds into his mouth and licked his fingers conspicuously. Steve wanted to reach over to him to taste one too, but Tony pulled the bowl away and held it out of Steve's reach. Steve gave him a reproachful look, but Tony just stuck another almond between his teeth and grinned cheekily. Steve understood the challenge immediately, carefully placed his full cup on the table and leant over to Tony. With delight, he pulled on the almond with his teeth until it came loose and fell into his mouth. After that he pressed his lips to Tony's again, which now no longer tasted of cocoa but had a hint of almond and caramel.   
"If I had known that food is the key to getting a kiss from you, I would have done it much earlier," Tony said.   
"Now that's really not a secret" Steve retorted while eating the roasted almond he had just bagged.  
"No, not really," Tony admitted, "but I'm always surprised at how well it works," he then grinned and fished another almond out of the bowl in his hand.

Steve examined the other bowls that were left on the table in front of them.   
"What is this?" he asked, reaching for a warm brown orb that felt like a very large nut.   
"It's a roasted chestnut," Tony said, snatching the nut from his hand. Steve watched as Tony drove his fingernail into a split in the nut and, with a crack, broke off a piece of the shell. In small bits he peeled the brown shell from the chestnut and beneath it the bright yellow inside of the nut was revealed.   
"Here," Tony said, holding the peeled chestnut up in front of him. Steve bent forward and took a careful bite. It was soft. Much softer than he had expected from its nutlike appearance and its flavour reminded Steve of sugary potatoes. Tony shoved the other half of the chestnut into his mouth and grinned as Steve looked at him indignantly.  
They spent the next hour stealing as much food from each other as possible. Tony had really pulled out all the stops and showed Steve some other Christmas treats he had never seen before, including specialities from Germany and Canada. None of them missed the previously announced, but not turned on, random Christmas movie.

"How stuffed are you?" Tony eventually asked as he snatched the last piece of fudge from the bowl. He was by now sprawled long across the entire sofa, using Steve's thighs as a pillow. Steve had his feet up on one corner of the now surprisingly empty coffee table and was holding his mug in one hand while the other one was alternating between caressing Tony's head and stealing food from him.  
"It's fine," he answered Tony's question, emptying the last of the cider from his mug in one go. "Why?"  
Tony sat up with a struggle. "What else is an absolute must for Christmas?" he asked. Steve looked at him, perplexed. "I don't know... decorating the tree?"  
"Good point, we should definitely do that too at some point. But that's not what I meant." He began to enumerate by the fingers of his hand. "We had a holiday light festival in our garden and a Christmas market in the living room." Steve nodded. Tony continued, "Going to see Santa in a mall... Aside from the fact that no mall is open, Santa would probably rather have his picture taken with Captain America and Iron Man than the other way around. But if you insist, I'll put a Christmas hat on Dum-E."   
Steve waved it off with a laugh. "I don't mind."   
"Thank God. But there's something else I used to enjoy doing at Christmas time, which is also an all-time and very cheesy classic"   
Steve pondered, but he felt like the two litres of hot chocolate and the marshmallows had gummed up his brain.  
"Jarvis, Central Park Protocol, please" Tony said. Steve looked at him sceptically. "Another one?" But Tony had already got up from the sofa and held out his hand to him. "If you had any idea how many protocols I have..." 

Steve let himself be pulled up from the sofa by him. "You don't really want to go to Central Park with me now, do you?" he asked suspiciously. "We've both had cider already, there's alcohol in it..."  
"Steve" Tony looked at him reprovingly "That would pretty much defeat the purpose of Quarantine Christmas, don't you think?" Steve had to agree with that, so he let Tony steer him across the living room and towards the basement stairs.  
"I thought it was still a Steve-free area down there?" Steve asked, slightly confused. He still had no idea what this was leading up to and what Central Park had to do with it.  
"Yeah, because I hide super secret presents down there. But I never said they were gifts for actual Christmas Day" Tony grinned mischievously and gestured Steve to go ahead. Curious, Steve descended the stairs and excitedly opened the door to Tony's workshop.  
"What the...?!" With his mouth open, he stopped in the middle of the doorway. The workshop was unrecognisable. The ceiling was covered with the same golden lights Tony had placed in the trees outside and again Steve felt very much reminded of a starry sky. The chaos he was used to down here had obviously disappeared into the many cabinets on the walls. The centrepiece of the workshop, the large hologram table at which Tony spent most of his time, had been moved to one corner, leaving a large open area in the middle of the room. An area that Tony had used for...  
"Synthetic ice. It's not cold, it doesn't melt and yet it has excellent gliding properties. It is therefore excellent for skating on."  
"You're kidding"   
"No I'm not" Tony grinned and actually held up a pair of skates. "I used to go to the big rink in Central Park a lot, but that's obviously out of the question this year. And we both know you have a problematic relationship with ice, so it probably would have been difficult anyway. But this," He bent down. "is something even you can touch with ease." Steve watched as Tony placed his hand on the artificial ice. It looked very real and yet Steve felt nothing of the coldness that normally came from ice and that still haunted his dreams from time to time.

Tony reached for Steve's hand and gently pulled it down as well until his palm hovered just inches above the smooth surface. Still feeling no coldness, he hesitantly put his hand down. It felt like plastic. Carefully he stroked it with his hand and listened carefully to his inside. But everything seemed to be all right. His heart was beating calmly and steadily.   
Tony smiled at him. "You're good?" he asked.   
"I'm good," Steve confirmed. "It doesn't feel like ice at all".   
"Well, it isn't" Tony said as he quickly slipped into his skates. He looked like he couldn't wait for it and for a moment Steve saw a young Tony in front of him who, as soon as the rink in Central Park opened, would tuck his well-worn skates under his arm and head downtown to be the first on the fresh ice.  
Tony rose and Steve had to laugh as the blades under his feet suddenly brought him to eye level. It was unusual for Steve to not have to look down at Tony. But he hugged him tightly anyway.   
"Thank you, Tony," he said. He felt Tony put his arms around him too and heard him say "I know it's not really a substitute for a normal Christmas time but..."  
"No it's not," Steve interrupted him. "It's better."   
Tony beamed at him. And their lips found each other as if on their own to a kiss in which Steve put all the love he felt for Tony at this moment. Tony, who had prepared all this in secret so that Steve, whose first real Christmas fell on this screwed-up year of all years, wouldn't feel like he was missing out again. And even though Steve didn't know what their coming Christmases would be like, he was pretty sure that this one would be remembered as a very special one.

When they separated again after the long kiss, Steve looked at Tony insecurely. "You know I have never stood on skates in my life, right?”  
Tony smiled and placed a brand new pair in his hands. "Doesn’t matter. It's 2020, Earth is closed. We have plenty of time to practise"

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr: [@beccibarnes](https://beccibarnes.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Thank you for reading <3


End file.
